How to Ensure You’re Not A Victim

If you’ve never had your personal information compromised, it’s safe to say you’ve been lucky thus far. Most people have had their debit or credit card used fraudulently, or have had some other similar experience. And while isolated incidents are inconvenient and cause a disruption, having your identity stolen can do far more damage. The fact is, ID theft can result in major financial losses, stolen tax refunds, credit score damage and much more. Protecting yourself means knowing what not to do—take a look at the top three mistakes when it comes to your confidential information: 

1. Throwing Away Household Paperwork in the Regular Trash

Think about what you throw away on a daily basis—if you were to sift through papers in the trash, would your name or address or any other personal information appear on any of the papers? Do you throw away receipts, junk mail or any outdated paperwork from credit cards, bank accounts or insurance policies? Anything that has even the smallest amount of information could be just enough for an ID thief to steal your identity.

2. Throwing Old Hard Drives Into the Regular Trash

Each year, hundreds of thousands of hard drives are discarded without a second thought. If you’ve ever thrown away an old computer or hard drive, thinking that you’ve successfully deleted all your files, you’re not alone. This is a common mistake-in fact more than 40% of discarded hard drives were still found to have personally identifiable information on them–even after they were wiped clean. The reality is, most hard drives still retain bits of information that savvy ID hackers can access, and there’s no way you or your company can truly erase all the data.

3. Throwing Away Your Old Smartphone or Mobile Device

Cell phones and other mobile devices contain a plethora of personal information. In addition to all your contact’s phone numbers, addresses and emails, there’s credit card, debit card and bank information, personal information within all your apps and more. If you’ve ever just tossed out your phone or tablet because it’s old and outdated, you’ve put yourself and all your personal data at risk.

Protect Yourself, Your Business and Your Family

Avoid the risk and repercussions of ID theft by being aware of these three common mistakes. All Points Mobile Shredding can help by providing shredding and destruction of documents, hard drives, devices and products. This is the only way to permanently destroy these items, which in turn is the only way to ensure your information is not compromised.

As a NAID AAA certified organization, we are committed to protecting you and your business against ID theft. We’re a family-owned and operated company located in Stuart, Florida and have been serving South Florida since 1994. Give us a call today or fill out this form to learn more.